Re: badger vs. dog, looked like the ninety pound dog realized his tactics weren't working against the 10lb. weasel. The badger would be much better off with something at his back, which it looked like he was thinking about as he started up the hill, before chasing the dog down the hill. Talk about phone booth fighting, put them in a tight space and that dog would be very unhappy.

Here's a couple interesting quotes from wikipedia:

"In North America, coyotes sometimes eat badgers and vice versa, but the majority of their interactions seem to be mutual or neutral.[15] American badgers and coyotes have been seen hunting together in a cooperative fashion."

"Badgers can be fierce animals and will protect themselves and their young at all costs, are capable of fighting off dog-packs and fighting off much larger animals, such as wolves and bears. However, badgers can be tamed and then kept as pets."

The Bushgirl clip was incredible! Beautiful. As far as leopards go, they are awesome creatures. They don't hunt in packs, are the most cunning, ferocious and versatile of the big cats. Much stronger pound for pound than any of them.

After we adopted our ferrets, I became fascinated by the Mustiladae family of animals. These include the sea otter, Amazon river otter, wolverine, honey badger, weasel, mongoose, fisher, marten, mink, ferret, etc. They are truly mother nature's wild card. It is as if, after creating all the other animals, God said to himself "Now it's time to have some fun."

Sea otters use dinner utensils; River otters hunt in packs to bring down caiman, and are known as 'river wolves'. Wolverines cover multiple tens of miles in a day, through deep snow and ice, and are capable of going up one side of a mountain and down the other without breaking their pace. Honey badgers can kill a puff adder while receiving multiple bites, only to fall asleep for a while, before waking up to eat their prey.

Ferrets are extremely curious and probably much too fearless for their own good, roly poly fuzz balls of fun.

Bill: "Learn how to apply turns and tenshin stepping in a fight and you can tie an opponent in knots. This is what my Gojo/aikido/green beret instructor taught me. He was a small guy who did dirty deeds for the military, and lived to talk about it."

Agreed! Look at the wolverine and the badger again, they are masters of this. And they are much smaller than a wolf pack, in the one case, and a large dog in the other.

Makes me think of all those funny low stances and weird turns you find in the old "flowery, decorative, impractical" forms. Maybe there was a good reason to learn from the animals.

Kind of sheds a new light on all those strange postures and hand positions.

fivedragons wrote:Did your instructor ever have to use his martial arts training in the course of prosecuting his missions? Or was it more of a mental training type of thing?

He started martial arts as a kid doing judo. Then it was kyokushinkai ryu (Mas Oyama style). Then he met and studied with Gosei Yamaguchi in California (Goju Ryu). Then he met Kimo Wall, and fell in love with the Shorei Kai branch of Goju that had a bunkai for every kata. There was some additional kobudo passed on to him from Kimo Wall. At some point he also learned the Tomiki method of aikido - a style he spends a lot of time teaching now.

Then he joined the green berets. And while there, he was (not surprisingly) asked to teach combat methods.

To say he "used his martial arts" is to say he breathed when he moved. At some point you cannot separate the man from his art. He was gifted to start with, and at some point he just intuitively "got" what he was doing.

For the record... I met him because he sought me out. He had Kanei Uechi's Kyohon, and wanted to learn Uechi. I ended up learning more Goju and aikido from him than he learned Uechi from me. He filmed me doing my kata and exercises, and took me on as a student of his methods. He transformed the way I was doing Uechi Ryu from about sandan to godan. I probably learned more applications of my art from him than I learned from Uechi Ryu masters.

He was a smallish guy who was just disgustingly good. He would have us doing these 3-on-1 randori sessions (sparring) where the person in the middle (often me) was all tied up with 3 guys on him. He would stop us, "tap in", and show how to get out of the Gordian knot that I had created. For the longest time I still got the sheet beat out of me in those many-on-one sessions, but seeing him do it ultimately gave me the belief that I could as well.

As is proper for someone in special forces, he didn't talk a lot about what he did. But when alluding to his days in special forces, this is the song that comes to mind.

He is a very, very nice man. But he is no doubt a 5-percenter sheepdog personality. He could kill 3 bad guys and then eat a balogna sandwich. I've noted that many like him coming out of special forces either end up in jail or - metaphorically speaking - find Jesus. The issue is a lack of empathy as you and I understand it. Those who understand their special wiring learn to pick up a dogma (e.g. Christianity and the Bible) which helps instruct them on the do's and don'ts of living in civilized life. Anyhow... he is now a practicing chiropractor, a non-drinking vegetarian, and an extremely devout Seventh Day Adventist.

Cougars attack by stealth they are ambush hunters. They target the neck of the prey or head, they can puncture the cranial vault with their canine teeth. Prey is often paralyzed or killed with the first bite.

Wolf packs will kill cougars if they catch them on the ground, they will steal their kills. Cougars will kill lone wolves. Cougars main prey is deer. But they will eat anything handy. The have difficulty when deer populations crash or wolves move into the area and target the same food source. Areas that have had these changes may encounter the cats in urban areas especially at night . It is not at all uncommon for cats to focus their hunting activities on domestic pet or livestock when prey density drops.

State regulations also can contribute to these situations where cats seek alternative prey. Moratoriums on cat hunting can cause a increase in predator numbers. This has a negative impact targeted prey populations. Increased hunting activity, longer seasons or natural disasters can also impact prey density and leave the predator seeking new prey.

Often young cats have problems establishing a territory or has difficulty learning to hunt. This is often a factor with young cats whose mother may have been killed before the cats were ready to leave mom. These adolescent cats often end up in urban areas.

Locally cats have healthy adults, attacked children, attacked horses and killed numerous dogs. They have killed numerous off leash dogs and dogs on leash being walked . I know of a local Labrador that survived an attack while off leash. He was lost for 3 days after the attack but eventual found his way out of the wilderness. Dog was clawed up and had 2 puncture wounds in the skull. Dog had a severe infection in the bite wound , But it lived. It never was the same dog however and was pretty much afraid of it's own shadow.

I've a friend with a Ridgeback, they are amazing dogs Bill. I can see why you admire them. Saw today someone on the Alberta hunting forums offering one to give away. The guy was willing to give it to anyone who wanted it as long as they come and picked it up within 24 hours. If no one claimed it he was going to take it into the forest and shoot it. Apparently it bit a neighbors kid who tried to pet it thru the fence. The dog also growled at the new baby twice in the last week. Sad some breeders will sell to anyone.

Hunters use hounds to hunt cougars. 3 or 4 usually. I know one guy who only uses two. When out numbered by good sized aggressive hounds cats run, when they get tired of running the go up a tree. Not to tough to shoot when they are up a tree.

The ridge back breed is a tough one but ....I'd not bet on a winning streak.

If one lives in areas with cats it's not a great idea to let your kitty of dog run loose, it's not a great idea to leave them tied up outside at night, they are a wildlife attractant.

We have had cats and wolves and coyotes go on to decks to steal fifi and fido in the wee hours. Most owners that let their pets out at night around here don't have pets any more.

In Los Angeles, we used to hear coyotes howling and there were owls living in the palm trees. The coyotes would come into the city and take small dogs and cats. There were many incursions by cougars, including one being spotted in the parking lot of a mall, far away from mountains or forest. They were able to take large dogs from yards enclosed with high cinder block walls. And they have been known to ambush hikers and bicyclists in the mountains, whether the person is alone or with others.

A shout out to my friend from Edmonton. And by the way... love the avatar.

Great post from a field expert!

Feur wrote:I've a friend with a Ridgeback, they are amazing dogs Bill. I can see why you admire them. Saw today someone on the Alberta hunting forums offering one to give away. The guy was willing to give it to anyone who wanted it as long as they come and picked it up within 24 hours. If no one claimed it he was going to take it into the forest and shoot it. Apparently it bit a neighbors kid who tried to pet it thru the fence. The dog also growled at the new baby twice in the last week. Sad some breeders will sell to anyone.

That's a very sad situation. And frankly this dog should be put under without hesitation. The breed may be aloof to strangers, but they're supposed to be loyal to their "pack." Something is very wrong here. He's a very bad accident waiting to happen. Bad breeder and/or owner.

The biggest fear I have with my Ridgeback and the neighborhood kids is his penchant to give flying kisses. I've always feared he'd jump up on a kid and accidentally hurt him. Sometimes he doesn't know his strength. Once when he was young, he got loose and went to the neighbor across the way who was sunning on her deck. He had her baby's face cleaned of drool and vomit in 5 seconds. Scared the *sheet* out of me, but... You get the idea. Great breed, but you need to protect them from themselves.

Feur wrote: If one lives in areas with cats it's not a great idea to let your kitty of dog run loose, it's not a great idea to leave them tied up outside at night, they are a wildlife attractant.

Tied up outside at night = another great example of bad owner. That's like putting a worm on a hook and throwing it in the ocean. *ANY* animal so restrained would be food for a predator.

Feur wrote: We have had cats and wolves and coyotes go on to decks to steal fifi and fido in the wee hours. Most owners that let their pets out at night around here don't have pets any more.

My oldest sister (breeder of Great Danes, Ridgebacks, and Maltese) *used* to have housecats on her property at the edge of the Santa Anna desert. No more; coyotes got them. And the Great Danes - hunting in pairs - get the coyotes. Methinks they want mama to get more cats.

Feur wrote:Dog was clawed up and had 2 puncture wounds in the skull. Dog had a severe infection in the bite wound , But it lived. It never was the same dog however and was pretty much afraid of it's own shadow.

This also happens to most victims of crime or street beatings.

I had one such case involving someone being attacked and beaten pretty bad in the workplace.

He had difficulty functioning in all aspects of life. I had the worker's compensation claim on this. We had shrinks upon shrinks and work rehab on this hapless victim. Pretty bad.

Could happen to any of us.

I respectfully challenge that assertion.

Grossman has done a lot of research on this as it relates to killing. It was the prevailing believe during WW II that year upon year of bombings would cause mass PTSD and force an entire nation to succumb. This was the belief of Hitler when he bombed the UK again and again. As it turns out, that wasn't the case. In fact the PTSD was more prevalent in soldiers who had killed others than it was in civilians who were targets of wartime aggression.

That said...

*I* believe that one important challenge for martial artists and martial arts instructors is to galvanize students' minds the same way we toughen their forearms and legs with exercises like kotekitae. LeDoux and Siddle have touched on this. Darren Laur has a very nice piece (The Anatomy Of Fear) which goes into some of this. Grossman talks about the causes of PTSD, and things the military can do to circumvent it.

It's one thing to acknowledge our vulnerability to mental as well as physical trauma. It's quite something else to move forward from that awareness and help build legions of psychologically resilient warriors and citizens. I know I don't have all the answers, but I do have the belief that we instructors can make a difference.

The first key in any such attempt to galvanise the student is to give a healthy dose of reality.

My view these days is to help give an outlet to develop balanced , self assured , responsive attitudes.

to balance any confidence of skill we need to acknowledge that it indeed can happen to anyone , yourself included , myself included anyone .

In fact its quite often the smallest thing that will come back to bother someone , I've heard many accounts of people surviving serious trauma only to be hobbled by what seems a relatively minor incident .

Vans all about education , but the biggest flaw is not having any knowledge a plan or understanding , having said that it all may not help.

but that's martial arts and life in general .

I don't believe Vans saying it will happen to everyone , but I do believe its the human condition to be traumatised by trauma ........ And that we should be realistic in confronting our vulnerabilities and coping strategies and acknowledge we will probably need outside help.

Now someone who's done such work to be proactive in there own defence gets a serious maybe debilitating beating ...... Now lets be honest and consider that sort of person is probably even more likely to suffer from a broken ego and outlook , or fall prey to a paranoia , ptsd or depression.

acknowledging the possibility is part of the continuum so folks can feel normal , be responsive rather than reactive , and feel free to seek help and be accepted both with themselves , with professional help ,to discuss with friends and peers comfortably , and free of judgement in there martial arts community of having failed their training .

So while I agree with your post , I also agree with Vans , and believe he was never asserting what you've read into it.

Stryke wrote:So while I agree with your post , I also agree with Vans...

Two sides of the same coin?

I was pondering the "advantage" we have in Uechi Ryu in that we spend time literally beating on each other. What does it do? I can tell you one thing it does not do; it doesn't make us invulnerable. But it does change the damage threshold, and - more importantly - teach us with great clarity where that line is.

In the past 3 years I experienced 3 merger-acquisitions that led to layoffs. For all practical purposes, the family unit depends upon me. So when I don't have a job, the entire house of cards collapses.

The first time was the worst. The interesting thing about it is I had told all my direct reports that change would come but my job would be more vulnerable than theirs. While I *intellectually* understood it, I hadn't emotionally accepted it. I was a class act when I got the private word, and they treated me with the utmost respect. And I got a new job in record time - well before my severance pay had ended. I had landed on both my feet in style.

However...

Yea, it hurt. And nothing anybody could say made it better. The only thing that made it better was the first day of my next job. It's difficult to explain if you haven't been there. But if you have, you understand.

The second time was a piece of cake.

The third time I experienced a trifecta of incredibly bad things happening - including the imminent death of my dad. The one thing that got me through was the thought of putting one foot ahead of the next, each and every day.

Did I suffer physiologically and psychologically? In measureable ways - right down to losing a *lot* of weight. But life goes on, and the pounds come back. How did it all change me? All I can say is, it changed me for the better.

It could have been much worse; I take nothing for granted. Many people in my shoes lost their homes, lost their families, and now are unemployable. I have a job, my house, memories of my dad, my boys, and a general happiness that no person or event can take away from me.

It's difficult to explain. But if you've walked the path, you understand.